Flight of Gold $5 Half Eagle Turbulent

The flight of the half eagle or gold $5 lasted more than a century, but it ran into plenty of turbulence along the way. Speculators melted or exported most of the pre-1834 gold $5s. A new gold coinage standard increased the number of gold coins in circulation. So did the great California Gold Rush that began in 1848-1849.

But the Civil War erased any progress as all gold coins disappeared from circulation. By the late 1800s, gold $5s turned up mainly in bank reserves and in Christmas stockings. Even so, the denomination lasted until the 1930s, when the Great Depression and a series of executive orders brought the historic series to an end.

Early Birds

An Act of April 1792 authorized a gold $5 coin known as the half eagle. Production of the denomination didn't begin until mid-1795. A shortage of gold and the priority given to other denominations caused the delay.

Moses Brown deposited the first gold at the Philadelphia Mint on Feb. 12, 1795, according to an item in the September 1959 issue of Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine. Joseph Wright made the second deposit, on March 31, 1795. It consisted of 21 ounces in ingot form. In May, the Mint received two additional deposits totaling 59 ounces. In June, Joseph Anthony made three gold deposits amounting to 1,344 ounces.

Engraver Robert Scot designed the first gold $5. The obverse depicts Liberty wearing a Liberty cap. The reverse pictures a young eagle perched on a palm branch, holding a small laurel wreath in its beak. Scot reportedly copied the design from a Roman first-century B.C. onyx cameo.

It may not have been perfect, but it was a start. The Oct. 21, 1795, issue of the Columbian Sentinel, published in Boston, went slightly overboard in its description of the coin . . .

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